ROTHE HOUSE
(click to enlarge)
Erected in 1594 by John Rothe, a wealthy
city merchant, and his wife, Rose Archer.
GUIDANCE NOTES FOR READERS SEEKING INFORMATION ON PLACES IN COUNTY KILKENNY.
KILKENNY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Territorial division in county Kilkenny is organised in Baronies (nine), Parishes (over 150) and Townlands (many hundreds).
The definitive source is General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands & Towns, Parishes & Baronies of Ireland. You will need to record the Barony and Parish in which a place is located, to aid future research: some records and sources will be arranged only by one or the other.
The Place Names of County Kilkenny (O’Kelly, 1969) gives brief information on townlands and indicates other townlands in the area.
Lewis’s Topographical Directory (1836) is an important period source.
Trade Directories which were issued through the nineteenth century may also yield information. The Library holds Slater's Directory, 1846; Kilkenny city and county guide and directory, G Bassett, 1884; Illustrated guide to the city and county of Kilkenny, P Egan [1883-84]. (The County Library, John's Quay has a fine run for the first half of the nineteenth century.)
Locate places on a map:
The Ordnance Survey Discovery Series of the end of the twentieth century.
First Ordnance Survey of c1840.
A good starting point for historical research is Carrigan’s History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory (1905).
The index to the Old Kilkenny Review, the Society’s own journal, should be checked, as should those of the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, which had its origins in Kilkenny and whose early volumes have a strong Kilkenny content.
The Library seeks to hold all place histories relating to the county, and the Library catalogue should be scanned. However, many of the place histories are small publications which have been bound into composite volumes: these should also be inspected.
Tighe’s Statistical Observations relative to the County of Kilkenny of 1802 is a useful period resource. The series Calendar of the Ormond deeds 1172-1603 contains much relating to the county. Leslie’s Ossory Clergy and Parishes has information at the parish level.
A source for early information is A Census of Ireland c1659. Griffiths’ Valuation of 1850 deals with land occupancy, and the 1901 Census, largely used for genealogy, gives housing, population and occupational details.
Page created 24 November 2002